Artist, Dealer, Cats

The relationship between artist and dealer is a complex one. In the following true-life conversation Art or Idiocy? takes an in-depth look at the intricate nature of this complicated back and forth in the case of scheduling a studio visit.

ARTIST: So I know you said you are all fatigued from doing studio visits, but would you consider stopping by the kitchen to see some objects and what's nots? And see what the opposite of what Jake looks like. (1)

DEALER: Can I bring Jake?

ARTIST: Does he attak other katzes?
Winsor gets along with other cats, or at least he used to live with some. (2)

DEALER: He tells me what is art and what is just stuff.

ARTIST: NICE.

DEALER: It helps.

ARTIST: You should definitely bring him. This will put his mettle to the TEST.
Winsor has given up and now just shits in a box. Which also happens to be in the same place as my studio.

I have these two scratching posts next to each other; they kind of look like that Barnett Newman sculpture of zips [Here I (to Marcia) 1950].

DEALER: Jake knew the difference between a log and a work of art made out of a log.

ARTIST: Whoa. What was the difference?

DEALER: One was just a log.

ARTIST: Heh. Was this in Rob’s studio?

DEALER: Jake never really leaves the apartment.

ARTIST: Yeah, nor Winsor.
One time he got lost, it was the scariest saddest thing!
One Saturday in the wintertime I was all set to go somewhere but remembered something just as I walked out the door. I got side tracked for I don’t know how long. Then I heard off in the distance this cat yowling. I thought to myself, “awww, someone’s cat is really lonely!” And then I was like, “that sounds like Winsor.” I turned around and saw that I hadn’t latched my door all the way, so it opened all the way up. And in my old apartment the door would close off half of the apt. when it was open. So he must have gone to get some food and water or use the toilet and wandered out into the hall.
I found him at the bottom of the stairs all huddled and cold.
OK I have to go home and make sure he’s safe and sound right now!

DEALER: That's a sad story.
Winsor, however, forgot about it within ten minutes.

ARTIST: I know; that’s a good point. It still haunts me, though. I’m paranoid he’ll get lost.
So when do you think you can come over?

DEALER: I will have to think about it.


NOTES:
1 The dealer’s cat, named for Jake Berthot, is longhaired and raccoon-like.

2 The artist’s cat, named for Robert Ryman’s Winsor series—which in turn was named for the paint the Ryman used, “Winsor White,” made by the British company Winsor & Newton—is shorthaired and ferret-like.